Have You Seen Any of These?

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Orca and Porpoise - Cetacean Sightings

Transient Bigg's Killer Whales and Harbour Porpoise. The Pacific White Sided Dolphins must have scattered, but where? A water taxi reported through Garry Henkel, Aboriginal Journeys Whales and Grizzly Bear Tours. that in the past week he's seen Orca in Toba Inlet, Rendezvous Islands and Hole in the Wall. They may be following the Dolphins, but no other reports of them have come in.
Susan MacKay & Lynne Cracknell, Whales and Dolphins BC

Call 1-877-323-9776 or Email your report.
Every sighting report is valuable
Have you seen a whale, dolphin or porpoise?


TRANSIENT BIGGS' KILLER WHALES

Transient Bigg's Orca (T19B?)
April 1, 2014
Garry Henkel, Aboriginal Journeys Whales and Grizzly Bear Tours

April 1:
9:00 am: 4 to 5 Orca foraging off the south end of Marina. (not clear if it was 'the' Marina Discovery Harbour in Campbell River or Marina Island, by Cortez Island - SM)
Jack Springer, Campbell River Whale Watching.

April 1:
12:14 pm: Report from my Tug boat buddy of 6 or 7 Orca milling at Separation Head (Quadra Island) at 12:10 pm. Two large fins, he said.
2:52 pm: There are 6 Orca southbound at Race Point. (near Brown's Bay) No big fins.
4:06 pm: They are at Cape Mudge, southbound.
4:18 pm Ran into another group of 5 or 6 Orca Southbound by the red can buoy off Cape Mudge. 1 Large male looks like T19B. Lost the other ones.
5:29 pm: Left the T19 and gang one mile from Mittlenatch heading your way. (Towards Powell River.)
Garry Henkel, Aboriginal Journeys Whales and Grizzly Bear Tours.

March 31:
10:15 am: Six or seven Orca are southbound at Race Point. There is one large male in the group.
Jack Springer, Campbell River Whale Watching.

March 31:
1:29 pm: 5 – 7 Transient Orca southbound at Cape Mudge Village (Quadra Island.) Large males, at least 20 ft., 5 – 7 animals.
Short time later: Those Orca are heading past Cape Mudge Southbound – They're flying!
Nick & Janeen Templeman, Campbell River Whale and Bear Excursions.

Transient Bigg's Orca
April 1, 2014
Garry Henkel, Aboriginal Journeys Whales and Grizzly Bear Tours

March 28:
2 to 3 pm 1 Orca Southbound off the Powell River Sea Walk. Report from my sister received March 29th.
Judy Brant, Powell River

March 27:
9:20 am Orca.....somewhere heard broken radio transmission - SM.
Radio

March 27:
12:15 pm: Orca in front of Brown's Bay. No numbers or direction.
Aaron Webber, Campbell River Whale Watching.

March 27:
4:00 pm: My father in law saw seven Orca southbound by the mouth of the Campbell River, mid channel, around 4:00 pm. There was one big fin.
Garry Henkel, Aboriginal Journeys Whales and Grizzly Bear Tours.

March 26:
1:00 pm: The T002's are northbound, approaching Old Church House on Stuart Island in Calm Channel.
Jack Springer, Campbell River Whale Watching.

HARBOUR PORPOISE


March 27:
7:50 pm: There was a small group of Harbour Porpoise out front about 100 yards off Roberts Creek Pier the past few mornings. So nice to watch these guys just passing through.
Geordie Harrower, Roberts Creek.


Transient Bigg's Orca
April 1, 2014
Garry Henkel, Aboriginal Journeys Whales and Grizzly Bear Tours

LINKS IN THE NEWS

My apologies for a mistake I made on the most recent report. A link which was supposed to go to a news story about Pacific White Sided Dolphins led instead to a different news story. Here now is the link to that dolphin story:
(Lynne)

Meanwhile, it seems that here has been a significant breakthrough in our understanding of cetacean language. A computer program has recognized the dolphin word for “seaweed”!

The long awaited decision of the World Court at the Hague regarding the Japanese Whaling program in the Antarctic was finally released, resulting in a complete ban on Japanese Whaling in that part of the world. A massive victory for Australia, New Zealand, animal activists, and of course the endangered whales of the Southern Ocean. Here are a couple of links to that story:


And finally a commentary on the whaling ban by Carl Safina, award winning scientist and author, and host of a PBS television series:

Transient Bigg's Orca
April 1, 2014
Garry Henkel, Aboriginal Journeys Whales and Grizzly Bear Tours

Have you seen a whale, dolphin or porpoise?
Call 1-877-323-9776 or Email your report.
Every sighting report is valuable!

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